Chinese students in Taiwan say it's bad to hate the Beijing butchers
People who don't know much about freedom of speech
On Thursday, December 24, 2009, Chinese dissident Wang Dan (王丹) gave a speech at Taichung's Providence University (靜宜大學). The day before his speech, flyers advertising the speech had been distributed all around the campus, but by the day of the event, they had either disappeared or been ripped up.
What kind of person or people do you think would have had a reason to do that sort of thing?
Ten Chinese students showed up to attend the speech, seven of whom sat right up front. Although they were a minority in the audience, they took up much of the discussion time with long, rambling, and hostile questions.
Free speech is something their own government won't permit, but while in Taiwan, these Chinese students used that freedom to disparage Wang for hating the Beijing butchers responsible for the Tiananmen Square Massacre (天安門大屠殺) of June 4, 1989.
Here's some video from FTV News (民視新聞) about what happened:
Contemporary Monthly (當代雜誌) editor-in-chief Chin Heng-wei (金恆煒) compared the students' behavior to that of the infamous Red Guards of China's tragic "Cultural Revolution" (無產階級文化大革命) whose violent attacks against people violated its own rule that "persuasion rather than force was to be used." We've seen the same sort of violent, nationalistic behavior from Chinese at soccer games in their own country, the Olympic Torch Relay in other countries, and at a recent speech by a Taiwanese student in S. Korea who "dared" to hold up a small ROC flag. Don't fool yourself by saying that this is nothing.
Chinese democracy activist Wang Dan (王丹) stirred debate recently over his suspicions that Chinese students may be "conducting organized activities" on college campuses in Taiwan.
In his latest post on Facebook, Wang said he raised the matter because he wanted to remind Taiwanese that this was now taking place in their country.
Wang, who is a guest lecturer at Chengchi University's Graduate Institute of Taiwan History, gave a speech at Providence University in Taichung on Thursday titled "How to See the Real China." During the two-hour event, a group of Chinese students studying in Taiwan challenged Wang, a student leader during the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989.
[...]
They accused him of being unfair to the Chinese people because of his hatred for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
[...]
Wang said he was not making sensational comments to scare the public, adding that student council president at University of Hong Kong, who had previously made comments to the effect that there was no such thing as a Tiananmen Square Massacre on June 4, 1989, was elected following organized voting by Chinese students.
"Taiwanese should take note of these things and not be too naive," Wang said.
Liao said the 70 students who attended the speech were free to ask questions. However, few Taiwanese students were able to do so, as the Chinese students dominated the session. He said that while Wang might have been slightly intimidated by the scene, the atmosphere actually wasn't too bad.
[...]
When a Taiwanese student asked Wang about China's progress on democracy, Liao said, the student took a moment to send "his regards" to a Chinese student who had spoken before him, saying that "the student from China loves his motherland very much. I also love my motherland very much, but I do not love China."
The first students to call themselves "Red Guards" in China were a group of students at the Tsinghua University Middle School [...] Chairman Mao Zedong ordered that the manifesto of the Red Guards be broadcast on national radio and published in the People's Daily newspaper. This action gave the Red Guards political legitimacy, and student groups quickly began to appear across China.
* Liberty Times article (Hanzi): 王丹提警訊 在台陸生疑有組織活動 (Wang Dan warns of suspicious organized activities by Chinese students in Taiwan)
Taiwan's DPP has a great ad to enlighten the public about the lies being told by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) about an Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) which his government insists will be signed with China. See what Ma says about "sovereignty," and compare it to the direct words of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) about "complete unification" [sic -- the correct word is "annexation" (併吞)]. Cringe in horror as you hear Taiwan's Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) "explain" why he can't talk about the details of this ECFA.
Here it is with English titles (original version below):
517 DPP protest against Ma Ying-jeou's sovereignty-destroying pro-China policies
An amazing success -- except for the two guys that a cop put in the hospital and the black-shirted instigator in Kaohsiung who provoked a reaction (before crying like a stuck pig when he got what was coming to him and returning to Taipei today for more of the same)
I was there at the Taipei protest, but since I'm getting to this a bit late, I'll mostly just provide some relevant links.
But first, here's a photo I took on Ketagalan Boulevard (凱達格蘭大道):
The crowd on Ketagalan Blvd. #4 (Click to enlarge)
* I shot some video at the 517 protest. This one shows a small portion of the crowd. The question isn't "Is Hau Lung-bin lying?" It's "How big of a liar is he?" Read the full desciption on its YouTube page for more info.
* Michael Turton was in Taipei, too, and he calls the protest a "roaring success." He includes lots of photos, as you'd expect. But I disagree with one thing he says. I saw plenty of young people at this protest.
* A 21-year-old police officer, said to have been driving 80 to 90 km/hr. in an area with many protesters, smashed his police car into two men in their sixties, injuring one severely and smashing half of the windshield on his vehicle. Last I heard was that he may have to have a foot or leg amputated and then cranial surgery.
Did anybody else also notice how the media was trying to deceive readers and viewers with their "speculation" that former president Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) son Chen Chih-chung (陳致中) and daughter-in-law Huang Jui-ching (黃睿靚) would not return from the US to face questioning by prosecutors?
Well, they're back.
Here's some truth-revealing video from Monday night's Talking Show (大話新聞):
5:07 YouTube video: "Return of the son of Chen Shui-bian" (Click "More info" on the YouTube page for an English-language summary of the video)
Apologies from the media and people like Chiu won't be enough. They did that shit on purpose.
Don't fall for these kinds of tricks, and hope that you never have to face that kind of "justice."
UPDATE: The University of Virginia has admitted their "error" and apologized, though the reasoning is still suspicious. The person who gave the media the incorrect information (Jeffery G. Hanna, deduced from the Chinese transliterations of 漢納 and 韓納, Hanna's media relations position, and these two photos) left his job last Friday, and the apology was made by Assistant Vice President for Public Affairs Carol S. Wood (a name that was difficult to find starting from the phonetic back-translation from the Chinese 卡蘿). Most of the articles behind the links in this update are in Chinese. The one linked under "apologized" says Chen Chih-chung told reporters that the school "hinted" to him that they had received some kind of "pressure" and told him that he "shouldn't apply for admission this year." [/UPDATE] News "anchors": Taiwan, 台灣, deep thoughts, 深思, Chen Chih-chung, 陳致中, Huang Jui-ching, 黃睿靚, Talking Show, 大話新聞, media, 媒體, Chiu Yi, 邱毅, YouTube
Last Thursday, July 24, 2008, Taiwanese people had been "picking on" Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) (Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT]) -- about one particular thing -- for three whole days! What was this about? Ma said that the expressions on the faces of Taiwanese people had changed since before his inauguration.
I will explain this "change" shortly, but first some context.
During former president Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) term, the KMT constantly complained that prices were too high, that the government wasn't doing enough to control prices, that the average citizen could "barely survive" (快活不下去！), and so much more.
During Ma's presidential campaign, he told voters that "things would get better right away" (馬上就會好！). He told them that the stock market would climb to 10,000 or even 20,000 points. He told voters, "We are ready" (我們準備好了！).
At the time Ma was promising voters the world, they looked so happy, he said. But now, in the wake of sharply rising prices of things like food, utilities, and many other necessities, with a stock market decline of over 2,000 points (so far), and with a minor typhoon (Kalmaegi) which wreaked major flood damage (probably because his party blocked the DPP's water management budget for political reasons), Ma said with a heavy sigh that the Taiwanese look so "cynical" now. Does that sound like a president who "feels the people's pain" (苦民所苦)?
Show me (where ya gonna get) the money! Ma made the voters believe that 3,000 Chinese tourists a day would "save" Taiwan's economy. That story changed pretty quickly, with the "promise" changing to an upper limit of 3,000 a day. But the tourists are barely trickling in. There were around 2,000 the first weekend (not 2,000 per day), and there are already fewer than 1,000 per weekend. That shouldn't be a surprise, as China subsequently limited the number tourists to 1,000 per day.
Remember what he told the voters about how long they would have to wait: "As soon as I'm president, things will be better."
The "bad" old days from which we're rapidly "escaping" By the way, the economic growth rate for the first quarter of 2008 under Chen Shui-bian's administration was a higher-than-expected 6.06%, but Ma's government now says that it will be difficult for his government to reach even 4.8% by the end of this year.
Did anything need saving, or do we now need to be saved from Ma Ying-jeou?
Just how badly has Ma screwed things up? Well, according to Global Views Magazine (遠見雜誌), his approval rating is currently the same as that of George W. Bush -- who had to invade another country on false pretenses, massacre hundreds of thousands of civilians, ruin the lives of countless others, spend gazillions of American tax dollars, throw the Middle East into turmoil, send the price of oil skyrocketing, and continue to threaten other countries. And we can't forget Hurricane Katrina and how many more flaws were revealed by that disaster.
That's right. After just over two months in office, Ma Ying-jeou's approval rating has slipped all the way down to 27 percent.
Talking Show (Monday, July 28, 2008) shows us Ma's survey numbers from the pro-blue Global Views Magazine (遠見雜誌) and the Economic Daily News (經濟日報) (Click to enlarge)
The smackdown On the Thursday, July 24 2008 edition of Talking Show (大話新聞), KMT spokes-whiner Chen Ming-yi (陳明義) made an ironic choice of words in his reply to someone during the call-in segment, and the caller smacked him right back.
The caller, a Mr. Wei (魏先生) from Kaohsiung, had joined in the discussion about Ma Ying-jeou's characterization of Taiwanese people as "cynical."
MR. WEI: Ma Ying-jeou's policies are giving Taiwan away to China. Does Ma care whether the Taiwanese people live or die? Therefore, Ma finds it easy to call the Taiwanese "cynical" or sei lai ko (it sounds sort of like "washing underwear" [洗內褲] in Taiwanese)?
(Laughter from the Talking Show panel about Mr. Wei's pun)
MR. WEI (continuing directly): Chen Ming-yi, I have a suggestion for you. Since you're here on this show, why don't you act a little more "humbly" and accept criticism from callers. Don't just sit there and protect your "boss" (Ma Ying-jeou), because people can tell whether you are speaking honestly or not. If you want to be like that, just don't come to the show.
CHEN MING-YI: Mr. Wei, I'm not here to protect Mr. [sic] Ma Ying-jeou. I just think that talking about this subject for three days straight is quite enough.
MR. WEI: What do you mean "enough"?! How long did you guys (the pan-blues and their supporters) rag on Chen Shui-bian?! You guys attacked A-bian 24 hours a day every day for eight years! Even during "midnight snack time," you guys attacked him! When our neighbors' ditch [the one that either they themselves or the local government should keep clean] was clogged, they acted like even that was A-bian's fault.
(More laughter from the Talking Show panel)
MR. WEI (continuing directly): So how can a ka hsiao [a Taiwanese insult at about the same level as calling someone a "bozo"] like you act like such a crybaby when the citizens complain about something for just 3 days? If you're going to be like that, just stay away.
CHEN MING-YI (off-screen): What gives you the right to call someone a "ka hsiao"?
At this point, host Cheng Hung-yi (鄭弘儀) is moving on to the next caller.
Mr. Wei from Kaohsiung didn't fall for the KMT bullshit! Show them that you know the real deal, and watch them whine!
Maybe it would be too much to request that the government pass on some of the blame to Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators, whose unreasonable partisan bickering resulted in a more than 12-month delay in the implementation of the Democratic Progressive Party government's eight-year flood prevention package.
Instead, we have been treated to passing the buck par excellence, with Premier Liu Chao-shiuan's (劉兆玄) top-level meeting on Monday blaming the Central Weather Bureau and requesting that it submit a report on how to improve its forecasting capabilities. This call came despite the bureau's warning last Wednesday -- a full day before the storm made landfall -- that Kalmaegi would bring "considerable" amounts of rain to both east and west coasts.
Remember what I wrote less than two weeks ago about "Ma Ying-jeou's thugs"? [highlighting added]:
If these four legislators did this without Ma's or KMT chairman Wu Poh-hsiung's (吳伯雄) knowledge or permission, shouldn't they be kicked out of the party? (Pre-completion update: Fai has offered to quit the party, but he wasn't kicked out.) If Ma and/or Wu did know about it, shouldn't they step down from their respective positions? And are the KMT's "apologies" really apologies when caucus whip Lin Yi-shih says that "these four legislators didn't do anything wrong." Is he advocating Gestapo-like tactics? What if the shoe were on the other foot?
Furthermore, can the KMT's "apologies" really count as apologies when a front-page ad in Thursday's United Daily News (聯合報) has Wu making the excuse that they "went to the wrong place at the wrong time"? Would it have been okay at "another time"?
But that was yesterday Well, they've gone and proven my point about those non-apology "apologies." Let's take a look at some more recent behavior from thug-islators Alex "The Faker" Fai (費鴻泰) and son-of-a-gangster Lo Ming-tsai (羅明才), with comparisons to their earlier "apologies" provided by the Thursday night edition of Talking Show (大話新聞):
Those "apologies" sure didn't last long, huh? Or, as I originally suspected, they were meaningless from the start.
Blues of a feather President-elect Ma "Harvard-trained ployer" Ying-jeou's (馬英九) Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has done the same thing by making "token gestures" to the survivors and family members of the victims of the 228 Massacre. Ma has also made election-related "promises" to the same victims. Ma and his party's insincerity is made apparent by the fact that they continue to idolize Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石 / 蔣中正) -- the "main culprit" in both that incident and the subsequent decades-long period of White Terror and martial law in Taiwan.
With the above information to set the stage, how long do you think it will be before Ma and his party try to resurrect the old Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall (國立中正紀念堂)?
The DPP government had changed the name of Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall to Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall and replaced the inscription dazhong zhizheng (大中至正) on the gate of the hall with "Liberty Square" last May as part of its "de-Chiang campaign," aimed at erasing symbols of dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石).
"Illegally changing the name of Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall was ill-mannered and was, of course, invalid," Ma was quoted as saying in an interview with the Chinese-language China Times published yesterday.
Taiwan's president-elect Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) graduated from Harvard Law School, but unlike his opponent Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) and his predecessor Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), Ma never passed the bar exam.
Yet a simple Google search locates multitudinous examples of people calling Ma a "lawyer." Where did this meme come from, and can it be stopped? That all depends on whether you, the reader, fall for the media's lies.
Look who's fluffing Ma Ying-jeou!
With Saturday's election results putting Ma's win at the top of Google News' English-language page, and with the lie about him being right in the first sentence of so many articles, it's more than I can silently endure.
A March 23, 2008 search of Google News for ["Ma Ying-jeou" "Harvard-educated lawyer"]
Notice the article from the Malaysia Sun there, which is already calling Ma "president" almost two months prior to his inauguration instead of "president-elect."
Furthermore, his party isn't just called "the Nationalists" or "the Nationalist Party" -- it's the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT or 中國國民黨), as the Mandarin version of their own web site and political ads will tell you:
Why doesn't most of the English-language media use the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) full name like the party does in Mandarin on its own web site?
A-gu (阿牛) tells us that the China Times (中國時報) is saying that "79% are happy about Ma's victory." How is that even possible when he only got 58.45% of the vote? (Yo, Raj, the key word is "happy.")
All the "fluffing" has got to stop. Come May 20, 2008, let's see if the media treats Ma the same way they did Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁). I won't be holding my breath waiting for that to happen. They're already calling his wife "Big Sister Mei-ching."
Peace? People are suggesting that things will be more peaceful with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in the presidential office and with a 3/4 majority in the legislature. I'd like anybody who believes that to take a look at this collection of recent clips of the pots who would call kettles black:
Silver linings? Ma's willingness (so far) to use English with the international media may let more people around the world hear his moment-to-moment self-contradictions. Then again, that would require a slightly diligent media instead of one that acts as his "fluffer." - - - * Well, he might be considered an "abogado" in Mexico, but not too many other places. Legalities: Taiwan, 台灣, Ma Ying-jeou, 馬英九, Taiwan 2008 Presidential Election, 2008年台灣總統大選, YouTube, media, 媒體, memes, 大腦模仿病毒
YouTube user TaiwanSkyLine has an awesome video online. It explains a lot about Taiwan's recent history -- describing how the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) foments hatred and ethnic divisiveness along with the red media. The video tells the tale in a mere 3 minutes and 53 seconds (contains some English, but Mandarin reading skills and Taiwanese listening skills are helpful):
3'53" YouTube video: "我的故鄉我的國家" ("My home, my country")
The correspondents This past Saturday, Michael Turton and Craig Ferguson were together in Taichung scoping out the old fogeys and hired babes at the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) rally. Feiren and I were (separately) in Kaohsiung, as was Wally Santana of AP. The dateline on a Reuterspiece o'crap by Ralph Jennings (a veritable king of loaded language) says he was in Taipei (345 kilometers away from Kaohsiung), and while Bloomberg's Tim Culpan wrote about it, too, he may as well have been phoning it in from an alternate universe beneath KMT headquarters. (Read on, and you'll see why I say so.)
Many participants in the SocialForce.tw discussion took part in overseas rallies, including ones at the Dag Hammarskjold Plaza in New York, the Federal Building in Los Angeles, the TECO office in El Monte, CA, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and many other places.
I can only wonder how many people around the globe took part in the day's events supporting Taiwan's entry into the UN.
From here to there First, some details gathered on my personal adventure to Kaohsiung.
My wife and I boarded a Taiwan Railways train at the station in downtown Taichung, where there was a nice big "UN for Taiwan" banner hanging out front. (Be sure to also check out Michael Turton's impressive panorama of the same scene taken 2 days later when there were far fewer people.)
I didn't know if I'd see or be able to notice anybody aboard who might be headed to the Kaohsiung rally. Imagine my surprise when DPP heavyweight Chai Trong-rong (蔡同榮) got on my car in Chiayi (嘉義) wearing a green-sleeved "UN for Taiwan" jersey and sat a couple rows in front of me. He reclined in his seat and snoozed through most of the journey there, but before disembarking, a smiling supporter had grabbed his attention, so I didn't get the chance to say hello.
At the station in Kaohsiung, it was more crowded than Wal-Mart the day after Thanksgiving. I photographed a couple of the same kind of banners that Feiren saw there.
So that's why they call 'em "5-star" hotels! Leaving the train station by taxi, my wife and I headed to our hotel -- a high-class joint a short distance from the start of the parade route. But we were both tired and hungry. I had hardly slept at all on Friday night because I was so excited about the upcoming rally. We looked for food, but of the two nearby places on the map the hotel provided, one was already closed for their afternoon break, and the other apparently no longer existed at that location. So, we went back to the hotel and ordered room service.
By the time we had eaten, the parade had already gotten underway, so we were trying to see how the media was covering it. When I turned on the tube, it was tuned to TVBS where Lee Tao was busy spouting his usual nonsense and looking like his head was about to explode. SET was missing in action. FTV was present and accounted for, so we stuck mostly with that channel.
The TV images showed huge crowds, and we were in an air-conditioned room sitting on a comfortable bed. But I didn't come all that way just to sit there!
Inertializing... Since the parade was well on its way, we hailed a taxi and headed for Nong 16 (農16), which was the end of the parade route and the site of the evening rally. The ride was not short (costing NT$150), so I didn't regret skipping the long walk in that heat. We were able to get out just a short distance behind the big stage.
Pure energy There was so much happening, I have to refer to my photos and videos to get everything in order. Also, even though I was trying to not to fill my memory cards with images, I filled 3 of them.
Miscellaneous observations Kaohsiung mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) had lots of energy with which to fire up the crowd. An aboriginal singer-rapper let the rhythms flow in an exciting rapid-fire manner, yet he carried a wonderful melody at the same time. There were many different kinds of T-shirts for sale. I got myself a special one with a design which I'll keep secret. ;-)
The crowd was composed of people of all ages. I saw a guy walking with an upside-down ROC flag hanging from a ragged broom. A man in front of me had flags from earlier pro-democracy rallies I'd attended (228 Hand-in-Hand, 326 Democracy/Peace/Protect Taiwan). There were people as far as the eye could see (with more and more arriving in droves). An Elvis impersonator sang "Heartbreak Hotel," "Hound Dog," and other tunes. DPP Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) led the crowd with inspiring cheers. I saw Robin Hood (AKA Robin Dale of "Formosa Lily" fame [see the original video]) in the crowd nearby, Vice-President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) implored the US government in English to understand Taiwan's dilemma. Cabinet spokesman Shieh Jhy-wey (謝志偉) via satellite, live from New York kicked out something like a rap -- in Taiwanese:
And how could I forget Frank Hsieh's (謝長廷) chiding of Ma "Don't Paint Me Red" Ying-jeou:
你為什麼不給台灣一個機會？！
[Maddog translation] Why can't you give Taiwan a chance?!
Coming up to the end of the event, when Cabinet Secretary-General Chen Chin-jun (陳景峻) and Kuan Bi-ling introduced President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), the crowd went abso-friggin-lutely wild. See for yourselves:
At the end of the evening, there were lots of fireworks, the sound system played Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" at high volume, lifting spirits even higher, people were enthusiastically chanting "Taiwan! Go, go, go!" and the evening, despite some small glitches, was one for the history books. The people of Taiwan, both at home and abroad, along with friends from nations around the world, had stood up and made their voices heard with a peaceful, positive message: "UN for Taiwan! Peace forever!"
A short while later when it was time to go, without necessitating any external pressure, the crowd dispersed in quite an orderly fashion, as they have at every single DPP event I've attended. It was a great end to an awesome evening.
Appreciation During the rally, I got many smiles, thumbs up, expressions of gratitude, handshakes, and arms around the shoulder for my presence and support. As memorable as it already was just to be there, those things gave the experience an even more powerful flavor which I will forever carry with me.
The soreness On the downside, my legs were killing me, so after grabbing some nourishment at a nearby bakery, we headed back to the hotel. The TV was strangely not saying a whole lot about the event, so it was time for a little more food, a shower, and sleep.
Rude awakening The hotel breakfast was pretty bad, and by that, I mean 5-star awful! But equally bad was the China Times (中國時報) hanging on the door handle when we first went out. Perhaps that was the bad taste that lingered within me until noon.
To our surprise, when we picked up the Liberty Times (自由時報) (a "green" paper) from the nearest convenience store, the story wasn't on its front page. (It was on page A3 while the KMT's was on page A2.) However, its "sister paper," the Taipei Timesreported it in the front page headline story which, in my opinion, was where it should have been.
The numbers game First, all the wrong ones, and I'll start with an explanation of what I was alluding to in my earlier remark about Bloomberg's Tim Culpan reporting from "another universe." Head firmly up someone's ass -- perhaps his own -- he says that there were a mere "60,000" in Kaohsiung -- supposedly quoting [DPP] "organizers" -- and "100,000" in Taichung, quoting the KMT. Ralph Jennings of Reuters tells readers that there were "150,000" in Kaohsiung and "100,000" in Taichung. Wally Santana says "more than 100,000" were in Kaohsiung. Even the BBC says, quoting "police," that "At least 100,000 people" took part in the rally in Kaohsiung, and a later BBC story says "250,000." But you know what? They're all wrong -- every last one of them.
My own conservative estimate of at least 500,000 is based on: being there; walking through the whole site twice; actually counting large sections of people; and estimating how many such sections were present. Oh, and there are those photos and videos that I shot, in case you have doubts.
The usual BS The above articles all contain the usual memes/errors/lies/distortions -- you know, the ones about Chen Shui-bian being "written off as an embarrassment" by his own party or of being "unnecessarily provocative" towards the US and/or China, the ones where the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has the "Chinese" part left off, the ones where Taiwan "split" from China in 1949, the ones where the economy is "sluggish," and so on and so forth, ad nauseum.
Readers of Taiwan Matters should certainly know better than to believe any of that kind of nonsense.
China has seen self-ruled Taiwan as part of its territory rather than as a separate country since the island broke away from China in 1949 when Mao Zedong's Communists came to power.
Uh, not unless you equate both 1949 Taiwan and 1949 China with the KMT, eh? [/ END UPDATE]
The little surprises Heading over to Chichin Island (旗津) early Sunday afternoon where the crowds were totally unaware of a "sluggish" economy, my wife almost immediately spotted something exciting -- a green sticker on a light pole reading in white calligraphic script "台灣國" (Taiwan Nation). Thumbs up!
But it felt hotter and more humid than the sauna in hell's kitchen, so after stopping at a juice stand across the road, and passing by several of what my wife and I both perceived as being practically identical seafood eateries (no obvious specialties, just the same 50 or so items at every place?), we opted instead to head straight to La Mambo café, where the jingji (經濟, economy) seemed actually rather jingqi (景氣, or bustling).
Yep, that's right! We returned to Taichung on Taiwan's relatively new High Speed Rail. It was our "first time," and in contrast with what the Consumers' Foundation (Chinese Taipei) would have had us believe, nearly everything about the HSR was easy-breezy.
In contrast with what the pan-blue media had been telling me, there were lots of people buying tickets. We got to the station so early (as a precaution) that our wait was actually longer than the trip itself! We walked around the station and checked out the shops, the signage, etc.
The trip home was fast. It was smooth. I was oblivious to just how much danger I was supposed to be in.
Zuoying HSR Station
Home, sweet potato home Back in Taichung, I started putting all the photos and videos onto the hard drive, writing this post, editing videos, uploading and tagging photos, looking for others' experiences with the rallies. It took way too long, but I hope I've given you a view that you wouldn't have otherwise seen.
Via a post on SocialForce, I've turned up a link to the official acquittal document (Big-5) from the Judicial Yuan regarding their "not guilty" verdict in the special allowance case of former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) earlier today.
How can anyone believe or accept that the judge's basis for acquittal was that Ma "didn't know" that what he did was wrong? Anyone who believes Ma didn't know any better needs to watch this video (again), in which Ma told us (11 months ago) that he knew perfectly well that the special allowance was strictly to be used for public matters, not private ones like paying his daughter's credit card bills.
1:59 YouTube video: "顏聖冠質詢馬英九" (Taipei City Councilor Yen Sheng-kuan interpellates Ma Ying-jeou)
Remembering "the gecko's tail" We should also not forget about Ma's staffer Yu Wen (余文), who was sentenced to 14 months in jail for his role in this. If he was guilty of a crime, why isn't Ma? After all, Yu just collected the receipts.
Working hard for nihilist principles Ma is saying that an appeal would be "pointless" (虛耗) despite his own multiple appeals of many cases against him, including one involving a SARS death, another about the Tunghsing Building (東興大摟) that fell during the 921 Earthquake of 1999, and another that has to do with his refusal as Taipei mayor to pay the city's share for health insurance fees to the National Bureau of Health Insurance. Furthermore, despite the pointless mess generated by the "redshirt" madness that occurred not only on his watch but with his assistance (and which is planning to resurrect its pointlessness in Taipei next month), he says this would be "pointless" for all of Taiwan. Yes, the man must have no mirrors.
It's also too bad for Ma that KMT Secretary-General Wu Den-yi (吳敦義) made those threats of violence last week (LINKS: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) in the event of a conviction against Ma, because they give his opponents yet another very good reason to dispute the neutrality of this blatantly ridiculous decision and call for an appeal.
On February 28, 1980, while Lin Yi-hsiung (林義雄) was in prison on charges stemming from the Kaohsiung Incident, his seven-year old twin daughters and his mother were brutallymurdered while their home was under 24-hour surveillance by secret police under the rule of Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國). Another daughter survived that incident despite being stabbed several times, but grew up without her grandmother or her two sisters. This horrific act took place 33 years after another incident which led to the deaths (including executions on the street), political imprisonment, and disappearance of tens of thousands of people in Taiwan at the hands of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) under the lead of the aforementioned Chiang's father, Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石).
The "228 Incident" of 1947 On February 27, 1947, a woman named Lin Chiang-mai (林江邁) was selling cigarettes illegally on a Taipei street when KMT officers attempted to confiscate her wares. In the struggle, the officer struck the woman in the head with his gun, and she later died. Witnesses to the event chased the officers away from the scene. They fled to a police station, and when citizens gathered there to ask for justice, the officer fled out a back door.
The next day, February 28, a larger crowd gathered at the Governor-General's Office to protest, but were met with machine gun fire. This doesn't sound like the "uprising" the China Post and the BBC's Caroline Gluck would like you to believe it was.
In the subsequent months and years, Taiwan's intellectuals were methodically killed off, jailed under false pretenses, and terrorized by authorities in the period of Taiwan's history that is known as "White Terror."
Sixty years after the 228 Incident of 1947, the embattled presidential wannabe and disgraced former KMT chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬應九) and his minions are still obfuscating history with their whines of "Stop bringin' up old stuff" and "Japan did it." Yet until this "transitional justice" is dealt with, this "old stuff" will continue to be raised against the party which perpetrated the crime.
Videos (most in Taiwanese or Chinese with Hanzi subtitles):
* 台灣的歷史－戰後與二二八事件 [Taiwan History - Post-WW2 and the 228 Incident] * A 2-part video from CassidyTW: 二二八60週年 - 紀念殞落的228菁英 [60th anniversary of the 228 Incident - In memory of the fallen elite of 228] (lots more links there)
UPDATE 2: Here's a 3-part video from SET that I uploaded to YouTube: * Part 1/3 6'58" * Part 2/3 8'01" * Part 3/3 9'33" * Here's another video to think about when the KMT pulls their "Stop bringing up old stuff" act and tries to sweep 228 back under the rug where it couldn't be talked about for so long. Via the Hanzi titles which accompany the images onscreen, it reminds viewers how France, Poland, and Germany haven't done so with the Holocaust, but have instead faced up to that dark part of history. In contrast, every city in Taiwan has downtown streets named after Chiang Kai-shek (中正路). That page also has links to WMV versions of the video. Check out the plethora of links listed at the end of the video as well. * And here's a WMV video of a Taiwan "anthem" performed karaoke style (they sang right through the bridge) by the president, the V-P, and lots of DPP stalwarts.
Because of KMT control of the media and education system, many younger people in Taiwan don't know enough to even care about the 228 Incident. However, in order to secure their own future, it is something they must learn about. Lest we forget: Taiwan, 台灣, 228 Incident, 二二八事件, Ma Ying-jeou, 馬英九, KMT, 國民黨, YouTube
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